FOOH · Fake Out of Home
FOOH, Fake Out of Home, is advertising that looks real but is built in the computer. We made Celsius Orange Rush: a 20 metre can that looked as if it had been flown into Sergels torg in Stockholm. It got 1.6 million views in three days, entirely organic and without a krona of paid media, and people went there to look for the can. Here is how we do it, and what takes time.
01Included
There are two ways to do FOOH, and one of them rarely gives anything. The rest is about planning before the camera and knowing what takes time.
You add something giant and obviously impossible, for example a giant perfume bottle rolling through a city. It is the simple and cheap way, and there is a lot of it. Nobody believes it is real, and it rarely spreads: it just becomes noise. We advise against it and would rather come up with something better.
Too obviously fake, and nobody falls for it. Too real, and people simply believe it is real. We aim for the middle ground, where people think 'what the hell, is this real?' and cannot answer. Orange Rush was like that: there were loads of comments from people who believed it, and people went to Sergels torg to look for the can. Celsius did nothing special when they arrived.
We ask: if the brand really did this for real, what would it have done? For Celsius the answer was a 20 metre can covering an artwork at Sergels torg, flown there by helicopter, with a cloth that gets pulled off. What can be done for real is what can be believed. Other ideas that could have been done: mount a product on a train, wrap a carriage so it looks like a product, repaint an escalator so that from the right angle it forms a product.
The most important question before price. FOOH can be stylised, where the feeling matters more than being technically perfect, or look like a Hollywood film. The latter quickly takes much longer, for a result that rarely needs to be that good. We decide the level with you first.
The most important thing is a very good plan before the location is filmed, not filling in material afterwards. Clients often want to save money by filming their location themselves, especially outside Stockholm. It rarely goes well: filming FOOH takes an eye. You have to be able to see in your mind how what is added afterwards actually sits in place, and film with that in mind. That is why we almost always strongly recommend that we film the material.
Anything that mixes filmed footage with 3D needs camera tracking: the computer recreates how the camera moved and builds a simplified copy of the place, so the can stays where it should. If it is done carelessly it looks like it is floating around. We do simpler tracking ourselves, and it rarely takes less than an hour. For complex jobs tracking costs SEK 2,000 to 4,000 per 10 seconds of film.
02Real jobs
These are the parts of Orange Rush where we have the hours. The modelling of the can, the tracking and the shoot are not included. The table shows what takes time in a FOOH, not what a FOOH costs.
Celsius · the reveal at Sergels torg
| Part | Hours |
|---|---|
| The studio environment for the product films, from sketch to approved | 8 |
| Wear, dirt and seams on the can so it fits the scale | 4 |
| The texture of the cloth (what we would spend today) | 8 |
| The cloth simulation | 8 to 24 |
| Rendering, run overnight | about 10 |
| Holes in the bus windows so the can shows through | 2 to 4 |
This is how we count the hours in the rest of the 3D work: What does a 3D film cost?.
03Process
We start at the right end: what would the brand have done for real? We test the idea, decide how real it has to look and make a plan before anything is filmed.
We film the location with the camera movement the idea needs, and with the object in front of our eyes so that it sits right when it is added.
The can, the cloth or the figure is built, gets materials and wear, and simulations are run. We render most things overnight on our own computers. Orange Rush took about 10 hours to render.
Everything is put together with shadows, holes where needed, colour and sound, and released in the parts the campaign needs. Orange Rush came out in three parts so that curiosity could grow: the helicopter, the can under the cloth and the reveal.
04Price
FOOH is 3D work on a filmed plate, so the price follows the time: how real it has to look, how hard the product is to build, whether anything is simulated (cloth, smoke or water), how complex the location is to track and how many parts the campaign has. A simple FOOH film starts where a 3D film starts, from SEK 40,000. A job like Orange Rush, with a filmed location, tracking, its own 3D and a campaign in several parts, costs more, and we work that out with you before we begin. You get a fixed price.
Tell us which product and which location you have in mind, and we will tell you whether it can be done and what it takes. Order straight in Motorn →
05Case
06Words
Midnatt delivers at a high creative level, with a strong feel for both channel and audience. We at Celsius are very happy with the collaboration.
Frida AllanderHead of communications, Celsius07FAQ
FOOH stands for Fake Out of Home. It is advertising that looks as if it exists for real in a city setting, for example a giant product by a landmark, but is built in 3D and placed in a filmed environment. It spreads mostly on social media.
We started at the right end and asked what Celsius would have done for real: a 20 metre can covering an artwork at Sergels torg, flown there by helicopter. We built the can and the cloth in 3D, placed them in filmed material and released the campaign in three parts: the helicopter, the can under a cloth and the reveal. The can got seams and dirt so it did not look so perfect, and rendering took about 10 hours. The result was 1.6 million views in three days, entirely organic and without paid media, and people went to the spot to look for the can.
By aiming for the middle ground between real and fake, and choosing something that could have been done for real. How real it has to look decides a lot: stylised FOOH, where the feeling matters more than perfection, goes much faster than something that has to look like a Hollywood film. People in 3D easily become too stylised to be believed, so we prefer to film real people.
It is advertising and has to be recognisable as advertising. The campaign is published by the brand itself, and we build it so that it can be explained when it is released: in Orange Rush the reveal showed the new flavour. How it is labelled and released we decide together with you before anything is published.
The price follows the time. A simple FOOH film starts where a 3D film starts, from SEK 40,000. A job like Orange Rush, with a filmed location, tracking, its own 3D and a campaign in several parts, costs more. You get a fixed price before we begin. We explain the hours behind it in What does a 3D film cost?.
By choosing the level deliberately: stylised FOOH, where the feeling matters more than perfection, goes much faster than something that has to look like a Hollywood film. It can also be done smartly: film people against a green screen with the camera mounted on the thing they appear to ride, and then cut out to a very wide shot where the details do not show.
It depends on how real it has to look and how much has to be built. What takes longest cannot be rushed: cloth, smoke and water have to be calculated and you only see the result afterwards, and rendering takes hours (Orange Rush took about 10, and we ran it overnight). A good plan before the shoot saves the most time. You get a schedule with the quote.
You can, but we advise against it. Filming FOOH takes an eye for how what is added afterwards sits in place, and clients often miss that when they film with a phone to save money. We almost always strongly recommend that we film the material.
No. A CAD file or the packaging artwork makes it faster, otherwise we build the product from pictures and measurements.
Usually yes. We first ask how real it has to look, whether it has to be a certain place and whether you want to be able to steer details afterwards. Tell us what you sell and where you want it to stand, and we will tell you what can be done and what it takes.
The people behind it
You talk to the people who make the film, and we are the ones who read what you send. Nine people on Krukmakargatan in Stockholm.
Emil TravergårdOperations / Co-Founder
William ForslundCo-Founder
Melker Sehlstedt3D Artist / Photographer / Co-Founder
Tim StandefeldtHead of Sales
Elsa Gunnarsson3D Generalist
Felix NorrsellMotion Designer / Editor
Leo SundbergSound Designer / Editor
Alexander Lundvall3D Intern+46 (0)700 77 00 35kontakt@midnattmedia.seKrukmakargatan 44, StockholmMore about us →
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